I think many people aren't keen on following links to long articles. Anyway, I gave it a bit of a read:

"When a studio says it invested tens of millions of dollars in a game, you can bet the story was the one driving the spending. The studio hired an experience script writer which wrote the most amazing story ever written."
- I have my doubts, both about story being the driver and about the studios hiring good writers. The AAA industry is geared around delivering big over-the-top blockbuster style experiences at big blockbuster prices. From my understanding the main direct costs would be content (art assets, level design, etc), programming and marketing. True, a story can be a cause of requiring a lot of content, but assuming that games will be short on content/budget without a story is overstretching. I believe they would still make huge levels with insane detail and lots of character models without a story. It would be interesting to compare budgets for single player only games vs multiplayer only games, as multiplayer games are often low on story or lack it altogether.

"Second reason, it kills imagination and the freedom of movement. It locks the player in a specific pattern in which it feels captive. "
- True, I have felt this often, particularly when the imagination offers a host of solutions to a problem, and the gameplay offers precisely one.

"Third, it breaks game-play flow."
- Agreed. If the gameplay actions have little/nothing to do with the story actions, how is the player really involved? If the crowning moments of awesome occur in cutscenes, what was the whole point?

"Well, I personally think the best solution to this is the background story. "
- I like the idea. Let the player pay as much attention as they want to. Not a solution to all problems, but a tool nonetheless.

Overall I thought you jumped to some conclusions and overstated your case, but you had some good points.

I think many people aren't keen on following links to long articles. Anyway, I gave it a bit of a read:

"When a studio says it invested tens of millions of dollars in a game, you can bet the story was the one driving the spending. The studio hired an experience script writer which wrote the most amazing story ever written."
- I have my doubts, both about story being the driver and about the studios hiring good writers. The AAA industry is geared around delivering big over-the-top blockbuster style experiences at big blockbuster prices. From my understanding the main direct costs would be content (art assets, level design, etc), programming and marketing. True, a story can be a cause of requiring a lot of content, but assuming that games will be short on content/budget without a story is overstretching. I believe they would still make huge levels with insane detail and lots of character models without a story. It would be interesting to compare budgets for single player only games vs multiplayer only games, as multiplayer games are often low on story or lack it altogether.

"Second reason, it kills imagination and the freedom of movement. It locks the player in a specific pattern in which it feels captive.
- True, I have felt this often, particularly when the imagination offers a host of solutions to a problem, and the gameplay offers precisely one.

"Third, it breaks game-play flow."
- Agreed. If the gameplay actions have little/nothing to do with the story actions, how is the player really involved? If the crowning moments of awesome occur in cutscenes, what was the whole point?

"Well, I personally think the best solution to this is the background story. "
- I like the idea. Let the player pay as much attention as they want to. Not a solution to all problems, but a tool nonetheless.

Overall I thought you jumped to some conclusions and overstated your case, but you had some good points.